"Alito" is an Italian word for breath, but you still need an adjective to know whether the breath is fresh as an enlightenment or as rancid as an inquisition. W.'s current Supreme Court nominee, Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. once ruled that women could not receive abortions before showing doctors proof that they had notified their husbands. So not only did W. fail to nominate a woman to the all-male Supreme Court; he made it more likely that those males will do whatever they can to repress women everywhere.

An article in today's New York Times states that Judge Rancid Breath is "solidly conservative, not only on abortion but on other issues like the death penalty and the separation of church and state." What does it mean, at this point, to be conservative regarding the separation of church and state? The Constitution does call for that blessed separation, after all, so does a conservative stance on the question amount to upholding the separation?

One defect in the country's make-up is that the role of a Supreme Court Justice is not defined in any written document. Article III of the Constitution simply says that there will be a Supreme, and other Courts and then goes on to discuss questions of jurisdiction and treason. In the current climate, nominations to the Supreme Court are being used as political weapons; a disgrace to the institution, if you believe that Supreme Court justices should be interpreting legal cases in the light of the constitution rather than determining law. The Bosh would prescribe a breath mint for the Bush Administration, but the nasty skunk stench that administration has been spraying the world with since the first inauguration is such that the mint would be sacrificed to no good effect. (By Scott Rose)